What Conquers All
by Molly4
Summary: A sweet little KirstenSandy because there truly is nothing sweeter than Kandy. Kirsten finds comfort in the arms of her husband. Like she always did


A/N: A Sandy/Kirsten fic because, as well know, there is nothing sweeter than Kandy. Seriously, they're the greatest couple in television ever. And I want Peter Gallgher..oh how I want him.  
  
Disclaimers: I do not own or claim to own Kirsten or Sandy or the phenomenon known as Kandy. Anything you can recognize in this fic belongs to FOX, Josh Schwartz, and Kelly Rowan and Peter Gallagher, who just make the characters everything they are. Bravo!  
  
What Conquers All By: Molly  
  
Sandy held Kirsten securely in his arms. They were sitting on the couch, quietly watching some random television movie, the kind that Kirsten claimed to watch only to laugh at the pure cheesiness of the dialogue. Sandy knew better, though. He hadn't been born yesterday.  
  
Kirsten snuggled herself closer to Sandy, burying her head in his chest. Sandy responded accordingly by tightening his hold on her, and gently kissing the top of her head.  
  
Kirsten sniffed loudly. She'd been trying to fight the tears for what seemed like forever, but she could feel them pricking at her eyes.  
  
"Kirsten? Is something wrong?" Sandy asked, bending his neck at an awkward angle in an attempt to look her in the eye.  
  
He knew. He always knew. He even knew back in college when they first met, and he held her while she cried in a booth at Wendy's after finding out that the boy she lost her virginity to was getting married to some random girl from Riverside. Back then, Sandy had just been a guy in her Literature class, but memorable in his own little way. He was easy to spot; the wiry, dark-haired Jewish kid with overly large eyebrows and a heavy Brooklyn accent stood out amongst sun bleached hair and designer jeans. He was younger than all of the other students, a fact that didn't escape anyone's attention. Some of the meaner college kids referred to him as Ponyboy, a nickname based on his minimal, and rather grungy wardrobe, and his street tough attitude.  
  
Kirsten, however, had seen something different the few times she let Sandy Cohen enter her mind. He had a confidence in him that seemed to light up a room. He spoke often in class, letting loose rambling but brilliant comments about everything from Shakespeare to Vonnegut, in his unmistakable yet charming accent. He was the kind of guy that Kirsten wanted to get to know better, but didn't dare to, for the sake of her dignity. Sandy Cohen was a boy who always seemed to be laughing at everything around him, and Caleb Nichol's daughter would not stand to be laughed at. When she actually got to know Sandy, after her emotional breakdown in Wendy's, she saw that the laughter that held constant in his eyes was a light, teasing, but quietly respectful laughter, and laughter to mask the pain he'd endured throughout his life. Moving to the other side of the country and leaving the only family he'd ever known with little more than a few pairs of jeans and his book collection, Sandy Cohen was the exact opposite of everything Kirsten had grown up knowing. He didn't have a sports car, or wear polo shirts, or have that country club upbringing that reeked of misplaced superiority and elitism. Kirsten had been intrigued by him. And she still was.  
  
"Kirsten?"  
  
Sandy gently brought Kirsten's face closer to his, so he was looking directly into her eyes. He wiped the single tear slowly trailing down her cheek off of her face with a shaky thumb. He brushed the hair off of her forehead and kissed it tenderly.  
  
"You okay, babe?" Sandy asked, his low, rumbling voice, still containing that hint of Brooklyn, pouring into her ears and making her whole body shiver.  
  
"It's nothing," Kirsten claimed quietly, knowing full well that Sandy wouldn't drop it, and that she really didn't want him to.  
  
Sandy rubbed his cheek gently against hers, squeezing her body tightly to his. He kissed her cheek. It was funny how those tender little cheek kisses meant more to her than any hot and heavy make out sessions ever did or would.  
  
"It's everything," Kirsten whispered into Sandy's chest.  
  
"Your father marrying Julie?" Sandy asked, stroking her hair comfortingly. "You know we never really got to talk about that."  
  
"It's just..." Kirsten broke off, feeling her chin tremble, dangerously close to sobs. But every new tear that fell was quickly swept away by Sandy's lovingly gentle fingers.  
  
"What is it?" Sandy asked, his voice hushed and concerned.  
  
"She's...Julie's getting everything I could never have." Having finally let loose the thought that had plagued Kirsten since Caleb's proposal to Julie, she could feel herself quickly losing control of her emotions.  
  
Julie got her father. Got Caleb's love and affection. Julie barely knew him and still she got one of those hideously disgusting nicknames- JuJu. Kiki hated the awful pet name her father had bestowed upon her, in a brief flicker of human sappiness she thought Caleb would never repeat, but in its own twisted little way, it meant something to her. It meant they had a connection. It meant that even with her mother gone, she had family. Hailey had no cutesy nickname. It was between Kirsten and Caleb. And now...JuJu.  
  
Caleb had never been a big part of Kirsten's life. He'd never gone to her tap recitals; he'd never even stood in the back of the auditorium having arrived just in time to catch her squeaking away on the violin for her school's Christmas concert. Caleb's priorities were clear cut: Business, then family. Now it seemed as if he were reversing the order, and not for the daughter he'd never bothered to get to know, but for the girl from Riverside who married and then divorced the boy she'd lost her virginity to so long ago. Julie Cooper had Caleb's love and affection, and Kirsten was left with nothing more than a stupid nickname.  
  
"She doesn't have me," Sandy reminded her, kissing a tear before it fell from her chin. "She can never have what we have." He paused. "They can never have what we have." He planted a tender kiss on her forehead.  
  
"I know," Kirsten answered, closing her eyes and melting into him. "I know."  
  
"But it hurts," Sandy filled in, his warm hands caressing her face gently.  
  
Kirsten nodded into his chest.  
  
"Let's..let's just stay here for awhile," Kirsten requested hoarsely.  
  
"That," Sandy began, a smile on his lips and that constant loving laughter in his watery green eyes, "that I can do."  
  
And their love conquered all. 


End file.
